Banerjee, whose research focuses on the eye, picked the fruit fly Drosophila as a model system because the flies reproduce rapidly, making it easier to generate large numbers of them and observe their life cycle, and because all their genes are known. What scientists don’t know—and what Banerjee’s students are busily uncovering—is how these genes function. The only way to discover this is to mutate a gene, says Banerjee, and then see what happens to the fly’s eye.

Some of the students’ research was reported in the February 2005 issue of PLoS Biology, published by the Public Library of Science. The paper had 148 coauthors—including 138 undergraduate students.

For their part, the students believe the course helps them refine their career goals. At the very least, it gives them a leg up on the competition when they apply to graduate school. Joy Wu, for example, who has taken the class for 6 quarters, is now headed for a career in neuroscience. “That wasn’t my goal before, but as I progressed through the class I realized it’s what I wanted to do,” says the UCLA senior. “And when I’ve gone to my Ph.D. interviews, I’ve realized how lucky I am because my experience is different from that of most undergraduates, and I know my way around a lab.”

Photo: Joe Toreno

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